Episoder
-
In part 2 of the HFX Votes 2024 episode on property taxes I sat down with Darrell Dexter, the former premier of Nova Scotia to ask him about why we have a property tax cap in the first place. This conversation went off the rails almost immediately in the best possible way. Dexter explains that the property tax cap is doing its job, protecting people from being gouged by the market.
Dexter makes the case that if a city needs money then itâs incumbent on councillors to use the other tools at their disposal to make their budget make sense. As part of this discussion, Dexter also talked about the philosophy behind policy-making and how to anticipate outcomes.
After thinking about this conversation over the Canada Day weekend there I have my first question for The Coastâs I now have that will continue to inform my municipal coverage:
If the city needs money, which we do, if you (candidate) want to freeze or lower property taxes, then what revenue tools will you be using to cover the shortfall of lowered or frozen taxes?
-
The Coastâs municipal election podcast explainers continue with a deep dive into property taxes and the property tax cap. In this episode, Matt sits down with local economist Deny Sullivan to ask him some questions like: What is the property tax cap? How does it work? Is our council penny-wise and pound-foolish?
The two get sidetracked a little bit when the conversation veers into the new road safety framework and how it demonstrates a lack of fiscal responsibility by the city. Deny explains his property taxation philosophy and how council could be doing more to fix city finances while also getting housing built in a housing crisis.
As it turns out, keeping our capped property taxes low benefits land lords a lot, and doesnât really help anyone else. Sure homeowners save a little bit a tax time, but it costs us way more in the long term when the city canât afford to build for a better future. The two also spend some time coming up with some potential property tax fixes to afford the better world we want.
Do you still have questions you want Matt to look into? Send them to [email protected].
-
Mangler du episoder?
-
In this week's episode, The Coast's Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman discuss HRM staff's eyebrow-raising plans for redesigning the Windsor Street Exchange while making transit worse, plus how councillors aren't using the powers they have at their disposal.
Also, if you have any issues you want Matt to look into for the upcoming municipal election please email them to [email protected]
-
In part two of the Halifax Votes Transit episode Matt sits down with Reece Martin of RM Transit to help explain some of the choices Halifax Transit is making.
For example, in yesterday's episode It's More Than Busses' Douglas Wetmore proposed that Halifax Transit would be better served by switching to a headway bus service instead of a scheduled one. Reece Martin explains why a transit service would want to use headway, and also what a headway is.
For everything you ever needed to know about transit for the upcoming municipal election, here's HFX Votes 2024: How to fix Halifax Transit
-
In this edition of HFX Votes 2024, The Coast's special municipal election coverage, Matt sits down with Douglas Wetmore of It's More than Busses.
In part one of a two-part series Matt finds out what exactly's going wrong with Halifax's beleaguered bus system. Wetmore explains the issues facing transit, some of the issues created by Halifax Transit, and some potential fixes.
It's everything you need to know about why your bus is late.
In part two which will be out later this week. Matt will sit down with an expert to find out what transit would look like if it were well run. Between these two episodes, you should have everything you need to know to ask your candidates about transit.
-
In this episode Matt Stickland sat down with the CEO of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, Paul MacKinnon in what is the first in a series of explainers leading up to the municipal election. MacKinnon is a guy who knows what a downtown needs to succeed. We talk about the challenges of making unpopular decisions and how downtowns make money for the city. MacKinnon also tells me about the new plan for downtown that his organization came up with: Vision 2030.
-
In this weekâs episode, The Coastâs Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman discuss HRM councilâs unanimous passing of federally-prompted zoning reforms and how that will shape the city to come. Plus, Halifax has an emergency response⊠emergency⊠and the regionâs transportation plans still donât make sense.
-
In this weekâs episode of The Grand Parade podcast, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman chat with economist Deny Sullivan about Halifaxâs HAF blunders and why a labour shortage isnât to blame for the cityâs housing crisis. Plus, they delve into Halifaxâs deferred plans to abandon its Strategic Road Safety Framework in favour of a new plan that is worse than the old one.
-
In this edition of the Grand Parade Matt tells Martin all about his interview with Halifax's CAO Cathie O'Toole and director of the Department of Public Works Brad Anguish. Matt explains why this interview left him feeling a bit like a Philadelphia 76ers fan circa 2013.
After a break, Matt gives each councillor a rating for their performance during Halifax's budget season
-
In this episode of the Grand Parade the boys take a break from the budget as Matt grapples with learning new information about the city's transportation planning.
-
In this episode Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman give 110% as they reach into their bag of sports metaphors to talk about municipal politics in a podcast of two halves.
In the first half, Matt gives Martin the lowdown on the civil unrest growing in rural parts of the HRM. Also a look into the frustrating parts of municipal planning.
Not to be all doom and gloom, in the second half, Martin learns about all the genuinely good things taking shape for Halifax's future.
-
In this episode Matt and Martin talk about public safety: the JustFOOD program and police reform. This show notes are abridged due to budget season.
-
In this episode of the Grand Parade Matt and Martin talk about stories Matt is working on.
The Macdonald bike connection is moving forward, but there are some issues with the design, and how the design came to be in the first place.
After the ad break, Matt pitches a test for local government to see if they're ready to respond to the climate emergency.
-
The New Year always comes with the worst hangovers, doesnât it? When HRM council resumes on Tuesday, Jan. 9, Halifaxâs councillors will be confronted once again with a thorny problem: How to dig the region out of a $68.7 million deficit that no-one on council seems to know how to wriggle out from under. (That is, without taking a popularity hit by raising taxes or cutting key services.)
In this weekâs episode of The Grand Parade, Coast city hall reporter Matt Stickland presents two paths for council to considerâboth of which would add millions back to the cityâs coffers, he argues, if only councillors could stomach the blowback theyâd face. Coast reporter Martin Bauman wonders if the same issues plaguing Canadaâs inability to build high-speed rail are what hinders the HRM from making meaningfulâand swiftâstrides toward its goals.
And whatâs a New Year without a sprinkling of hope? The two talk about why the HRM has real reason for optimismâand what platform priorities theyâll be paying attention to in the next municipal election.
-
In this episode, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman talk about Halifax's budget crunch, why Trish Purdy wants to cut back on the HRM's annual spending on vehicles and why the region is broke. The police budget looks like it'll resemble last year'sâwhat does that mean? Also: Matt gushes about trains.
-
In this episode, Matt and Martin meet In Halifax Central Library to discuss what the city's budget process will look like this year. Thanks to a motion from councillor Tim Outhit this budget might be the first budget that the city passes in line with its strategic priorities.
Also covered in this meeting, the potential of the Board of Police Commissioner's new budget process. Martin also asks Matt about the new study he's one of the authors of, and Matt discovers Martin rode his bike really, really far one time.
-
Municipal engineer Paul Young has a vision for a âmajor behavioural changeâ within Halifax: Converting all urban speed limits in the HRM to 30 kilometres per hour. The reason? Not just to lower the likelihood of deadly collisions, which findings resoundingly show drop off significantly compared to 50km/h, but to cut back on things like traffic noise and pollution while promoting healthier, less costly alternatives. On Thursday, Nov. 16, Young gave his âSlow the Blazes Downâ presentation to the HRMâs Active Transportation Advisory Committee, of which he is a member. The bummer, as Coast city hall reporter Matt Stickland tells fellow Coast reporter Martin Bauman, is that as goodâand necessaryâas Youngâs traffic suggestion is, the political will to make it a reality appears to be about as hard to find in Halifax as a bike lane on Quinpool Road. Or Chebucto. Or Connaught. Or Robie. Or⊠well, you get the point.Why is it so hard for the HRM to implement the kinds of changes it purports to want? What do John Lohr and Bill 137 have to do with it? Should we be more like Wales? And is Matt still thinking about Otago Drive? Matt and Martin discuss all the above in the latest episode of The Grand Parade, plus detour into the Board of Police Commissionersâ latest meeting, why the HRM is broke and what the region would look like if it was run by US marines.
-
In this episode, Matt and Martin talk at great length about Otego Drive (https://maps.app.goo.gl/4VNHawhGx99YwVrr6) and what that little street can teach us about the dangers presented to us by our local government in the face of this climate emergency.
-
In this Grand Parade episode, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman dive into the HRM's Integrated Mobility Plan and what it secretly not-so-secretly suggests: Maybe Halifax would've been better off had the province not amalgamated the region in 1996?
Matt fills Martin in on why John Lohr's housing power play is a recipe for abuseâif not by the current housing minister, then by his eventual successor.
Also, the two discuss one of the biggest cracks in the foundation of the HRM's governance: Really bad minutes. That's right: Minutes.
-
In this weekâs episode of The Grand Parade, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman discuss Halifaxâs Integrated Mobility Plan, and Matt convinces Martin that itâs already dead. Why? Because of the way the HRM sets its budget. Plus, the two detour onto the subjects of roads, and whether the provincial governmentâs plans to spend more than $1 billion to expand its highways* should qualify as an investment. (It shouldnât. And itâs making Nova Scotia poorer.) Three cheers for the sunk-cost fallacy!*Yes, the money is also earmarked for bridges and ferry services. But mostly roads.
- Se mer